Bucket List for the Crazy Crafter- part deux

Oh, about a year and a half ago I posted this post. I didn't detail my bucket list (I should really do that sometime soon), but ya'll got the general idea. I really, desperately wanted to do a ceramics class. I never got to in college (one of my main regrets actually.)

Well guess who just signed up for Pottery I classes through my county! Well, if you guessed Momar, you would be correct, but misguided as to who the important person of the blog is. Yeah, Momar and I will start a pottery class together this summer. It will be awesome!

Spinning wheel love

Whoa! Hold the phone! I’ve posted twice in two days? Wow, I am amazingly productive right now or maybe I am just trying to keep myself busy until dinner. That is an option. You see, I could go downstairs and put my clothes away, or lay down and read, or blog. Examining the options, blogging seems like the best choice. I don’t have to move away from the computer and I don’t have to exhaust myself doing all the chores that I can think of to avoid putting my clothes away. Case in point, earlier this week I scrubbed the bathroom clean instead of putting the clothes away.

Today I got to show off my spinning wheel. It was delightful and I am so excited that my smile is a rictus of delight every time I am near it. Are other people so excited to spin? I don’t even know. Most of the other bloggers have been spinners for a while and “Oh my goodness, This is the first time” joy isn’t there. But it is possible that I am just a little too excitable.

So, I didn’t give you the stats on my wheel. It’s a Roadbug made by The Merlin Tree. Momar went ahead and got the double treadle.  It’s not painted, but eventually when I don’t have anymore money to buy fiber, I’ll put a design on it. I’m thinking a celtic tree of life... something a little more elegant.

Also, last night I partially filled two bobbins with white carded wool. Lady, the spinning wheel, and I were getting acquainted. If we get along famously I have some combed Corriedale, or painted BFL (Blue-Face Leicester) and then after that I have a date with some Merino/silk blend. I’m gradually moving it up. Or maybe not so gradually. I see beautifully painted wool and I couldn’t help myself...  Also, a really good reason why I am not allowed to work in a fiber store EVER. I would spend all my paycheck in the store.

Sorry for the lack of posting

Blogger was acting a little weird and I couldn't see any of my posts. Instead of trying to fix it I got lazy and just didn't post anything for several months. BUT! I will begin posting again soon, even if I have to move heaven and the place below to do so. Or if it means copying and pasting my post from whatever Word/ google doc that it comes from. I will be heard!

It's been a great several months though in life. Alpha was accepted into grad school. So we will e living with the family for another year or two before we move on. I realized what a bummer my life was going to school. I love school. Love learning and education, do not love the stress.  All in all life has been very kind.

You know what the last few months haven’t been good for? Not so great for knitting. Being a nanny means that I can't take my knitting with me because the little wee ones think it's a game to unravel all my hard work and I can't blame them. It is fun to frog, unless you've been working on a shawl and that was the 4th time you tried to knit it.

I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival at the beginning of May. I took Momar and Mei-Mei with me. Momar decided that she wanted a spinning wheel and I didn't gainsay her in the least. We now have a little Roadbug, who will tentatively be named 'Lady' since she fits into my ladybug tesco bag from England. Pictures will be forthcoming.

I've visited an Alpaca farm. I want one... an alpaca, mayb a farm. Now I have fleece to clean and wool to spin.

P.S. Alexandria- Fibre Space will take your money and take it well. Very well.

P.P.S. Will anyone be interested in the excess yarn that will be spilling forth from the bowels of my house?

Organizational woes

It’s time for another round of “WHAT WAS I THINKING! Oh, that’s right. I WASN”T!”

It’s a pretty fun game; you get to castigate yourself for all of the unthinking purchases you made over the last forever of your life.  This time, it is not my bitter friend and foe, squeaky acrylic, but cotton.

I got 5 colors of cotton in England.  I thought they were pretty and silky and I had plans to somehow make them fun socks.  (Don’t ask me how; I was without a brain at the time.)  I still think they are pretty and silky and since I paid for them with pounds, I am even more unwilling to let them vanish from my stash.  This is a huge problem because they become tangled messes with a mere touch.

Yes, I like tangles, but even I reach a point where my right hand knows not what my left hand does.  In this case... sinister Lefty (ha ha... all you who’ve taken Latin should laugh and then feel shame) wants to creep toward the scissors sitting so prettily in a blown glass vase.  Lefty hasn’t won yet, but it’s been a close battle.  Very close.

Out of the 10 skeins purchased,  the 5 colors all came with 2 skeins, I have duh-duh-da!  2 wound, unknotted balls.  This hard work was achieved while watching Legally Blonde by myself... and then with Momar and Mei-Mei because they missed it.

In all, this cotton reminds me of the silk I encountered at “The Needle Lady”.  A skein was purchased and then wound into a ball, but the attendant hid the center pull because this silk became nasty and knotty when pulled from the center.  This cotton is nasty whichever way, but in balls... it doesn’t get to tangle with itself.  Hopefully, it will be beautiful when it is knit or crocheted into something.  Right now, I am just left with inventive invectives against the puffy white plants that made this yarn happen.

 image courtesy of informedfarmers.com

 How I curse you! I curse and curse you!

A Brag post?

Do you know what?

I’d hate to be like other blogs that brag all the time about their wonderful husbands.. but really, I can’t help it. Alpha is just too awesome for words. He stayed up all night and then in the morning proceeded to make baklava bites for my book group tonight. (Yeah, I hang out with awesome older women and talk about books. That’s just how I roll.) He was worried that they were too salty and put strawberries on top. I would have taken a picture, but they were too delicious and I inhaled them with the help of Momar, Guru, and another lady. The picture below might give you a hint of what we indulged in, but it doesn't do it justice. Firstly, you can't recreate taste and secondly, there were strawberries on ours.

Image courtesy of The Food Network

We read The Curse of Chalion for this month. I love that book. I reach a point when I just can’t put it down and then I end up screwing up my fragile sleep schedule again.

I wish this post related somehow to spinning or knitting... but it doesn’t. It’s just a brag post about the awesome treats that Alpha makes for me all the time.

Let the games begin!

Once upon a time, there was a girl who wanted to do all the cool things that her mom did.  She wanted to knit and crochet and sew and do physics... well, not really physics, but then who could blame her?  Anyway, she asked her mom to teach her to do these things... but no matter what they did, the little girl could not learn how to crochet or knit.  It was a frustrating time for all.

Then one day, the little girl found a book that explained how to crochet.  She finally learned!  Then she decided to learn to knit from a book and she learned that too.  She was very happy.  She made large afghans and small scarves.  The little girl grew up, found a wonderful alpha male and then learned the purl stitch before she got married.

The girl and her Alpha went on a trip to England, where the little girl found a yarn store in Canterbury and bought sock yarn and double pointed needles . A new page was turned.  She started making socks all the time.

Then the little girl became interested in something that she never thought she’d be interested in.  Physics.  Of course, it wasn’t the same physics her mom did, but it was kind of close.  You see, the little girl learned to spin.

So I now embark on a new obsession and quest (not for the Holy Grail) to learn to spin and teach others the talents and skills necessary to denude a sheep and clothe yourself.  On this journey, you may encounter references to family and friends, but for the purpose of not being stalked I will disguise them all!  The people you see in pictures may look like people you know, but you are being fooled by advanced picture technology!

• Alpha- my husband.  A sweet, wonderful man who agreed to marry me.  Little did he know... He would probably still agree to marry me... but his acceptance would be peppered with caveats and compromises.
• Momar- a pet name for my Mom, the physicist.
• Dad- doesn’t have a nickname... though I could call him the Gamer.  Dad is better though.
• Imp-  is my sister and she is one.
• Mei-mei- my youngest sister.  She is sweetly indulgent to my madcap adventures, often aiding and abetting them.  We may not rob a bank together (both of us value the law) but we will raid the library and engage in tickle wars. 

There you have it! You may encounter other encoded names, I am not a social hermit, despite my inclinations. Have fun unraveling the names, but not too much fun unraveling projects.